In mid-August, he said, the corporation learned of the presence of a “whole series of different types of contaminants” common on lands on which soil has been moved from other sites. He would not name the specific contaminants.

Harrington said QHC owns some of the contaminated land at the north end of its lot. The City of Quinte West owns the land north of the fence line.

“We continued to test until we assured ourselves that it wasn’t a public health issue,” said Harrington.

He said QHC’s understanding is that material from a former quarry in the northern section was moved farther south on the lot, with soil brought in during the 1950s.

“There’s some short-term remediation that needs to happen,” he said, explaining QHC is planning to add fencing and soil capping where needed.

“That will prevent any migration of the materials,” said community relations manager Catherine Walker. “It’s been contained.

“There’s absolutely no indication it has gone to any adjacent properties.”

The LHIN’s Paul Huras said it’s been reported the pollution could be “easily mitigated” but “I’m not comfortable with the risks.

Such environmental cleanups tend to cost more than first projected and could also delay construction, he explained.

“That’s undefined and it leaves the message to me that there’s risks and I’m not prepared to have open-ended health care dollars open for the remediation,” Huras said.

“Remediation will delay this project even further and good people of Quinte West deserve this to move forward.

“I don’t expect the city could cover all costs” of the cleanup, he said.

“There’s another excellent site available.”

A downtown site on Murphy Street is worth further consideration, Huras said, adding it is 950 m from the hospital. It’s currently the home of the Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre, a key partner in the hub’s construction.

Should another party such as the city offer to cover the cost of remediation, he continued, he’d still want a written commitment that all future unexpected costs would be covered and the remediation performed within a set period.

“We need to move forward with this project.

“This is a terrific project. It needs to be built,” he said.

“I believe I’ve got capital ready to move on this. The sooner the better. Delaying it doesn’t help anyone.

“We wanted the Catherine Street site when it became available … It certainly was our preferred site.”

Quinte Health Care’s Catherine Walker said focusing on the Murphy Street site “is not in any way tied to the future of Trenton Memorial Hospital.” She said it doesn’t in any way change “our desire to maintain a strong hospital” in Quinte West.

“There’s not really an impact in terms of the hospital operations,” she said.

Officials had said an initial hub structure, housing the Community Health Centre and other agencies, could first be built on Catherine Street. A new hospital could then be built north of the hub in 25 to 30 years.

“If the hospital was selected for redevelopment on that land … we would need to be able to remediate the land,” Harrington said.

Word of reconsideration of the land issue prompted a flurry of calls, discussion and rumour in the last several days.

Members of Our TMH, the citizen group advocating for the preservation of Trenton Memorial and its services, plan to attend a meeting of the hub task force at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the LHIN’s Adam Street office in Belleville. A press conference is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

Betty Clost, a vice-chair of Our TMH, said word of contamination raises concerns.

“It’s caught some of us off-guard and it shouldn’t have. We should have been able to hear more about this earlier,” Clost said.

“We want to see the facts and the report. We worked very hard – all the partners on that task force worked very hard – to come up with the solution that we did,” she said.

That solution was to build a hub on Catherine Street.

“Now it looks like the hub has become an afterthought.

“I’m not sure how a Murphy Street location will support an entire hub.

“It’s congested. The parking lot’s always full. Where are they going to expand?”

Clost acknowledged there were more details to be released Thursday but that the information that had been leaked prompted rumours of “more broken promises” - just not whose promises had been broken.

“We haven’t seen how it’s framed, but we have a passionate community.”

Asked whether the redevelopment projects for Trenton and Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital are in jeopardy if the ruling Ontario Liberals lose power in June’s election, Huras said he didn’t foresee it.

“I would argue that our sound planning processes justify both of those developments and I would say ‘no,’” he said. Planning decisions made by LHINs are made carefully, he said, though “once in a while they have to be overturned.”

Huras again said, however, that strong cases had been made to support each project.